Letter: Electric cars are a mirage, sadly

A nice suggestion by Terry Byrne on the installation of charging points for electric cars (letters, February 2).

Indeed, serious money is being invested in electric vehicles but it meets the same obstacle: where is the electricity to come from, who provides it and who pays?

Nor does it make much sense to replace conventional cars with electric ones given that traffic volume is increasing at one per cent a year.

It saddens me to say this but I believe electric cars are a mirage; the cavalry is not going to ride to the rescue.

With the world probably having passed peak oil – the last major discovery being North Sea more than 50 years ago – the solution is to use less energy, not produce ever-more energy-guzzling goods and services.

For those interested, I recommend ‘The Long Emergency’ by James Howard Kunstler.